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They even delivered the essentials we need
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- 'Scuze me.
You guys down here hear about the ongoing
cholesterol problem in the country?
- [Andrew] Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to Binging with Babish, where this week,
we're finally taking a look at the grits
from My Cousin Vinny, a Southern breakfast, lunch,
and dinner staple so essential,
it's used as evidence in a murder trial.
Specifically, its extended cook time, at least 20 minutes.
We're starting by constantly whisking two cups
of boiling water as we add half a cup of hominy grits.
This is gonna help prevent lumps from forming.
And then, as the movie prescribes,
we're gonna cover and cook it for 20 minutes over low heat,
stirring every five minutes or so to prevent scorching
and seasoning to taste with kosher salt.
Then the other essential ingredient in the movie iteration
of this dish is lard, and since the cook was using it
on a flat top, I'm assuming he was frying
the bacon and eggs in it, so we're dolloping a much smaller
but still unreasonable amount into a large carbon steel
or cast iron skillet, effectively deep-frying our bacon
in it, which is gonna probably be awesome.
Once the bacon's nearly done, cracking a couple eggs
in there and cooking them over easy.
That is cooking them on one side until the edges
are lightly crispy and the whites are mostly set,
tean flipping them over and cooking them
for no more than 30 seconds, just to set any uncooked white
and keep the yolks nice and runny.
Find your very widest diner-style platter,
plate up the eggs along a big ol' pile of the grits,
which, of course, we're gonna top with a couple tablespoons
of butter, flank that with some crispy bacon,
and there you have it, the breakfast from My Cousin Vinny,
the healthiest fat of which might actually be the lard,
which, despite Joe Pesci's protests, is actually a more
nutritious cooking fat with less trans fat,
saturated fat, and ironically, damn near a third
of the cholesterol of butter.
That being said, he has a point.
This is not exactly a light breakfast,
but it is completely delicious, especially when all
three elements are eaten together at the same time.
But one type of grits does not a Babish episode make,
so we got to check out some of the other delicious
and incrementally less healthy iterations of grits.
First up, sweet grits, for which we're gonna use milk
instead of water, which is inevitably going to boil over
when you forget about it for five seconds.
So go ahead and tidy up your big ol' mess
and you can pick up where you left off.
You've scalded the milk,
but it's not gonna ruin the grits.
Same thing, whisk it in to prevent lumps,
cover up, and cook slowly and gently for about 20 minutes.
And we're gonna season it to taste with kosher salt,
extract our optional cinnamon stick that we added
for flavor, pile it into a steaming bowl, and since it is
a plain porridge, we need to load it up with all manner
of wonderful worldly toppings.
Brown sugar, jams, nuts drizzle of honey,
and what the hell, another fist-sized pat of butter.
And there you have it, sweet grits.
Basically just oatmeal, but instead of oatmeal, grits.
And because this is basically just a bowl
full of breakfast candy, it is obviously delicious,
but the rich cinnamony grits really act
as a perfect backdrop for it all.
But what about the decidedly more savory side of things?
Namely, shrimp and grits.
For this, we're gonna need a pound of fresh peeled
and deveined shrimp.
If you want see how to do this,
click the link in the upper right hand corner right now,
and make sure to hang on to those shrimp shells,
because we're gonna use them to make a quick shrimp stock.
This time, our grits are getting the milk
and chicken stock treatment, one cup of each.
Go ahead and cover that up and bring it to a boil,
and again, because there is milk in the pot,
you can expect this to boil over
when you look away from the pan for even one second.
There it goes, just like clockwork.
Kind of over it at this point, so I'm gonna add
my grits first and then clean it up.
And then, like any self-respecting southerner,
cook these guys for about 20 minutes,
seasoning with kosher salt to taste and setting aside
and keeping warm while we get our shrimp
and other stuff ready.
In a carbon steel or cast iron skillet,
we got four strips of bacon that we're gonna fry up,
and in a nice wide saucepan, we are toasting our
shrimp shells for about one minute until they turn pink
before adding one cup of water, two bay leaves,
and a handful of whole peppercorns, bringing this up
to a simmer while our bacon fries
and cooking down to about half its original volume.
Extract the crispy bacon from the situation,
and in the delicious bacon fat and fond,
we're gonna briefly saute our shrimp,
about one minute on each side,
sprinkling with about a tablespoon and a half
of Creole seasoning before flipping.
We're not trying to cook the shrimp through fully,
we're just trying to get some nice color on both sides.
They're gonna finish cookin' in the sauce.
So pull 'em out, set 'em aside, and in the even more
delicious fond and bacon fat, we're gonna saute
half a small chopped onion, half a small chopped
green bell pepper, and the thinly-sliced greens
of two scallions.
We're cooking these guys for three to five minutes
over medium heat, just to soften 'em up
and give 'em some color, then squeezing in a clove
of crushed garlic and letting that cook for about 30 seconds
or until fragrant, then we're finally deglazing the pan
with our cup, cup and a half of homemade shrimp stock,
bringing that up to a simmer and letting it cook down
'til it's reduced by about half, during which time
we're gonna add about four ounces of shredded cheddar
and three tablespoons of butter to our warm grits,
stirring them in until melted but not fully incorporated,
which is gonna give us nice streaks of cheese.
Then we're adding our shrimp back to the pot,
topping them the juice of half a lemon
and a few dashes of hot sauce,
and letting them finish cooking through in the gravy.
Then, to serve up, we are laying down the foundation
of our delicious, stretchy, cheesy grits,
topping those generously with our shrimp and vegetables
and what have you, then before things get too healthy,
we're gonna garnish with some of our crispy chopped bacon
and a little bit of parsley.
And there you have it, cheesy shrimp and grits,
a Southern classic that I can't wait to hear
how I screwed up.
Regardless, it's totally delicious,
not too expensive to make, pretty easy, and very wholesome.
That being said, my blood does feel a little thick
after eating all these grits and lard, so it's a good thing
that the sponsor of today's episode is Thrive Market.
Thrive Market makes it easy to shop by diets and lifestyles,
such as gluten-free, keto, vegan, and more.
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